SWAT 3: Chapter 1
by treegeekgrrl
Summary: The Section is fixing to grow. But there is a case to work and discussion needs to take place. Reviews welcome.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any part or portion of the characters created for "Ghost in the Shell." The members of SWAT 3 are mine and that is about it. This story was written with respect for the series and I hope that the owners of the original material take it as the highest form of flattery.

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The hostage situation was resolved. Section 9 supported by a Tokyo SWAT unit had been able to flush the hostage takers out and Saito and the SWAT unit's designated marksman had wounded, incapacitated, or killed the eleven member team that had taken over the embassy. The SWAT entry team itself had responsibility for clearing the hostages and getting them to safety. It had all gone smoothly. There were only a few civilian injuries to report.

The mission over, Saito scanned the rooftops with a spare scope. The shooting had been more than competent and between the two of them, the opposition did not stand a chance. It had been impressive and Saito wanted to acknowledge his counterpart. He spotted the blue armor and uniform two buildings away also holding a scope and scanning the rooftops his way. His counterpart spotted him lowered the scope and gave him a formal bow. Without waiting or looking for his response, the blue uniform rappelled down the side of the building.

He had worked with her unit before; Tokyo SWAT 3 was becoming the backup unit of choice. He suspected that the Major knew someone on the team or had formed it and was training it herself for eventual inclusion into the Section. If the latter he thought it would be brilliant. The idea of a second team sounded good and the Major did say that the Section's size was its main weakness.

A second team that was already formed and working well together would minimize training time. They would be a group to have a friendly rivalry with and provide new challenges to keep the Section sharp. The predominantly police content of the SWAT team would balance the current military content of the Section. He hoped this is what the Major had in mind. He would raise his questions with the Major tomorrow. Right now he had suspects to question.

_Next Day Morning Briefing:_

". . .the Prime Minister is pleased with our performance in this case. The financier behind the hostage takers was apprehended by Togusa and Batou earlier this morning. The Chief and I will be interviewing him after this briefing. Pazu and Bouma will collect evidence at his residence and storage unit. Ishikawa will analyze the computer. Saito, you have a meeting in 2 hours, I will give you details after the briefing. Afterwards you will join Pazu and Bouma. Dismissed!" With those words the Major concluded the morning briefing.

The Major motioned him over, "Saito, do you have any problems with SWAT 3?"

"No, Major. We work very well together. I was going to ask if you had incorporating them into the Section in mind."

"You get along with their designated marksman? No rivalry or other issues/"

"None of which I am aware. She is very skilled and together we have done a good job coordinating and covering our teams. There hasn't been much chat though, normally in the 'hurry up and wait' that is sniping if you have a partner to work with there are usually pleasantries. Right now we are only exchanging acknowledgements as seen through spare scopes. The minimal communication is curious."

"I do hope to wholesale absorb SWAT 3 into the Section; at least as many of them as will come. However, the reason Sgt. Mori is quiet is because she recognizes you and feels you might have an objection to working with her once you are reminded of the facts of your joint history. Here is her file; you are meeting her in the Tachikoma Bay in two hours. You will probably want to have the discussion over food; I recommend something other than the Ministry canteen."

Puzzled, Saito got himself a cup of coffee and went to his workstation. Why wouldn't he be able to work with her? 'Shared history?' He didn't recall dating a cop or working with a female sharpshooter, designated marksman, or sniper prior to the occasional mission with SWAT 3. He opened the file.

The Major or Ishikawa had put a timeline of service on the top. Police service since the war, commendations galore, promoted very quickly. He skipped to the start of her military service. Very high marks as a sharpshooter, moved to sniper training and then duty with 43rd joint task force then the operations her unit had been involved with during the war.

His suspicions that the Major had known someone on SWAT 3 were confirmed. Sgt. Mori and she had performed several joint operations. Skimming the list he saw the words "Missing in Action' and 'Presumed Dead' next to a battle whose name he knew and his heart nearly froze. It was a battle that had taken place before he faced the Major in combat and had been spared to join her.

Now he knew why he must speak with the Sgt. This was going to be awkward. He pulled out his phone and made reservations for a private room at a nearby restaurant; one that high officials normally dined. This was going to call for superb food and drinks to smooth the rough edges of this conversation.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own any part or portion of the characters created for "Ghost in the Shell." The members of SWAT 3 are mine and that is about it. This story was written with respect for the series and I hope that the owners of the original material take it as the highest form of flattery.

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At the designated time Saito found himself looking down into the bay and found the tachikomas conducting an interrogation. The victim of their curiosity was short, dark hair pulled up into a formal bun. Her uniform was the formal skirt, blazer, tie, and belts, similar to the Major's dress uniform except in police blue. She was clearly human and had a swimmer's build. Significant upper body development for a woman, the result of lots of work in the gym, probably to be able to control some of the latest and greatest of the larger weapons in their shared profession.

"What is the difference between a sniper and designated marksman?" asked the large blue metallic figure of a tachikoma.

"There are slightly different skill sets. Designated marksmen in a SWAT format assist in coordinating teams by letting them know what they can see. They protect the teams as much as possible by eliminating threats to hostages or perpetrators unwise enough to be in view and present a threat behind a closed door the team is about to enter. Snipers are military trained and can operate singly, in sniper teams, or to support specialized units. While superb long range marksmanship characterizes both professions, snipers are trained for survival, camouflage, patience to stalk or mark a target, and operating without support for significant periods of time." She paused to breathe.

"Designated marksmen just need the patience and stamina to operate in a police environment, several hours of patience. They are relieved if a siege goes on too long, don't need to survive off the land, and need only minimal camouflage skills. Does that answer your question?" answered the blue clad policewoman.

"I see, all snipers can act as designated marksmen, but not all marksmen can act as full military snipers," replied the Tachikoma.

"That would be a fair statement." The policewoman suddenly found herself surrounded by the tanks.

"We are as, if not more, accurate with our weapons as Mr. Saito is with his. We have therm-optic camouflage and do have a quiet mode. We could be snipers," piped in another.

"Well you do have the patience, and I suppose when focused on a task you can stick with it and not let your curiosity distract you. Could you truly survive without human intervention? Do you know enough to perform self maintenance and maintain power levels for weeks on end?" answered the cop turning to face the tank who posed that last query.

"That is an excellent question, and one we will most likely not be able to answer or test. I don't think the Major would allow it," chimed in the next tank in the circle.

"Sgt. Mori," began the bookish tachikoma, "which are you? Sniper or Designated Marksman?"

"I was trained by the military to be a sniper. After the war I had some paperwork difficulties and was no longer in the service. With the major's help I was able to straighten out the paperwork and join the police where my skill set allowed me to be a designated marksman. I am both," answered the Sgt.

"Did you know Mr. Togusa? He used to be a detective," came the high pitched voice to her right.

"My path did not cross his and I do not believe I was ever introduced. We were in different divisions," came her reply.

"You were in the military though and know the Major, did you know Mr. Batou and Mr. Ishikawa?" asked another.

"I have had the pleasure of working with them before during the war. It has been a long time and I hope to work with them again."

"What do you think we qualify as, designated marksmen or snipers?" asked the bookish tank.

"I haven't trained with you or worked with you enough to evaluate your sniper skills and we still have the escape and evade surviving on your own question to answer," replied Sgt. Mori.

The policewoman was turning slow circles answering the questions of the tachikomas. She turned to face the next question, but faced Saito instead.

Before she could say anything he asked his question. "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

She cocked her head at him. "I see you have a file. I'm going to assume it is mine. Do you remember me now or is that question based solely on the information in the folder?"

The only sound in the bay was the servos of tachikomic eyes moving back and forth between the two humans


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own any part or portion of the characters created for "Ghost in the Shell." The members of SWAT 3 are mine and that is about it. This story was written with respect for the series and I hope that the owners of the original material take it as the highest form of flattery.

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"How very rude! I looked it up. She used military handspeak. The Sergeant gave Mr. Saito the sign for silence and indicated us!" The bookish tachikoma said in its best irate voice.

"Well, Mr. Saito wasn't much better. He raised his arm with his hand palm open towards the door and the Sergeant went through it and he followed," said another.

"Not another word. Clearly we need to get better at human unspoken communication. They had an entire conversation and came to agreement on a course of action without speaking a word. Can you share the handspeak manual?" chimed in Batou's favorite.

"Of course! I concur, we should also make a study of human facial expressions. There were eyebrows and eyes and lip gestures that clearly humans understand," replied the bookish one.

The bay settled into silence as the tachikomas settled down into a course of study and synchronizing.

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"So do you think the Chief and the Major will be much longer?" asked Togusa.

"Nah, they'll be here in a minute or so and we will get our marching orders," replied Batou.

The two men faced each other in the hallway outside the interrogation rooms.

"I'm hoping those orders only involve actions after a very solid nap."

"We'll see, but you know the Major, there may barely be time for food."

"If there is to be no sleep there had better be food. Humans can trade sleep for food sometimes, but the equation breaks down if either sleep or food is omitted for very long," complained Togusa.

"True, well when relieved let's catch breakfast."

"Sounds like a plan. So what's the story with this SWAT unit? We've used the same unit for operational support the last three large and active assignments. This cannot be coincidence as the SWAT units are on call at all times. We should have gotten another unit a time or three especially the way those assignments were distributed geographically" said Togusa.

"The Major, Ishikawa, and I have a friend on that unit. I think the Major and the Chief have worked it out so that unit is on call for us and as well as usual duty. I haven't discussed it with her, but I'm starting to suspect integration might be in the back of her mind. Especially since this last mission went so well," replied Batou.

"Well it would balance us to be sure. Who do you know on the team?" asked Togusa.

"The marksman, Mori. Very solid sniper, we saw a lot of action together. Personally I think her and the Major get on well together because women able to talk our kind of shop are exceedingly rare."

"Oh?"

"Well think about it. We know that guys talk shop a certain way. Women talk to men differently than they do with each other, so having a woman in the same line of work might be liberating. Not having to translate to male speech," elaborated Batou.

"She is also good company in a fire fight, bar brawl, and a vicious opponent at cards," said the Major as she and the chief came around the corner. ."Now if we can get down to business?" she raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms at her assembled teamates.

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They were seated. The food before them and the waiters dismissed. The small room fell silent again.

"Everyone in that unit died," began Saito.

"Actually almost everyone in that unit died, there were two others left for dead who also survived."

"You were the sniper?" asked Saito skeptically.

"Yes," answered the sergeant.

"That cannot be correct. If that was the case I shot you myself and witnessed the killing stroke. There was no survival after that. Besides, the sniper was male."

"Our reinforcements arrived late and the opposition did not have the luxury of accounting for everyone. Let me tell you what you saw at my 'death.' An opposition skirmishing team entered the school bell tower at 14:57. A bald figure in armor attempted to fast rope out of the north window. You fired once and struck the figure in the abdomen. The figure fell the last 15 feet. The figure then attempted to crawl for cover except, before you could make the killing shot, the figure met the boots of an opposition skirmishing team. That figure was roughly used and eventually someone produced a knife and put it to the throat of that figure. Nigh simultaneously the head of the opposition member with the knife exploded as the knife was drawn across the throat of the figure. I imagine there was a fair amount of blood. Figure and knife wielder fall as one and the rest of the skirmishing team runs for cover." The sergeant finished and removed her tie and unbuttoned her uniform tunic to reveal an ugly, jagged, and white scar traversing her neck.

Saito blinked at this evidence. The view in his scope and the monitor of the system he had hacked had been exactly that. "Why bald?"

"We had spent too many winters being the warmest things in assorted barns, basements, and outbuildings. And. . ."

"When you are the warmest thing in the room then you attract all the mice and rats. Got it," Saito finished for her. He had his own memories of attempting to sleep in a freezing barn swarmed by vermin who just wanted to shiver in the body heat. They had not been restful nights and short to no hair was an advantage in minimizing resulting infestation.

"It was the first question that came to mind. I'm stunned," said Saito quietly.

"I was as well. I had only gotten a glimpse of you during our standoff. You moved behind hard cover before the bullet hit. But your style was unmistakable and after the second joint mission I knew you were the sneaky bastard who shot me. That took a lot of getting used to," said the sergeant.

"What makes you think I can continue to work with you after this revelation?" asked Saito, his voice quiet and deadly calm.

"I'm not sure that you can. That is for you to decide. I'm quite certain that I killed a lot of your friends and people you considered family, if not more than family." She paused for a second and drank her water.

"It also wouldn't have been right for you to discover this later. All trust would be gone then. The Major suspected but didn't know for certain until I brought it to her attention. But the way you set up the remote guns in that second operation was too reminiscent of that standoff to ignore."

"Why can you work with me, when you think I won't be able to work with you?"

"I spent a couple of days stunned, furious, re-grieving for my lost friends. You have a lot of my friends and buddies blood on your hands. You single handedly killed a third of my unit. But I know that I probably also killed people you valued. I came to understand that the blood balanced out and that my call to work with the Major and that work is more important than any emnity I might bear. I think we are a lot alike, both of us weapons of the Major and, therefore, weapons of the greater good. We have worked well together in ignorance, why should this knowledge change that? I admired your skills during the war and we had fought each other to a brilliant standstill. It was only the opposition reinforcements that changed our particular dance. I learned a lot from you during those weeks of siege as we probed and tested each other."

He was strangely flattered and furious at her words. She had gone stoic and philosophical and now he could do no less. He probably would have eventually and he had asked. Now the next question, "Your orders in that engagement did not include falling back to rejoin reinforcements?"

"No, we were DIP troops. Our orders were to contain and stop the opposition for as long as possible and inflict as many casualties as possible, until relieved, assigned elsewhere, or death."

'Who gave you the orders to die in place if you must?" he asked.

"The Major," answered she.

"You can still work for her after she led you to slaughter and left you to die?" Saito asked in a stunned tone of voice.

"They were lawful orders and given the larger strategy essential to winning the war. My team volunteered. We knew she wouldn't hesitate to spend our lives, but we trusted her to spend them well. After the loyalty you showed her during Dejima, being cut off and forced underground a couple of times, I assume you understand that and continue to trust her for that. She may be forced to spend your life but she will not do it in vain or without regret."

"When she found me in the charity hospital with a substandard cyber kidney, she redeemed me. Got me back on the rolls of the living and got me operational again. Why wouldn't I still be a weapon of the Major's?" came her full reply.

"If you survived and the reinforcements retook the city, why were you presumed dead?"

"I had gone to ground and taken cover. You know that when we take cover we can be very serious about it and can die in cover and not be found until some farmer is plowing his field or the building renovated after the conflict has passed. I had been able to patch myself up enough to stop the bleeding. I was lucky that the knife only grazed my throat and hadn't bitten. That done I promptly passed out."

"I became aware again after waking up in a hospital. I had apparently woken up delirious and raving and paranoid. I stumbled into our rear units three days later raving, nearly naked, burning with fever and infection, and nearly dead from dehydration. It took me weeks to recover enough to tell them who I was. It took them months and months for the paperwork to sort itself out and I'm not recorded as being amongst the living in places to this day,"

Saito nodded. "Do you have any questions for me?"

She got this faraway look in her eyes for a second. "Forgive me, my unit is responding. I must go." She left the room at a trot.

He followed to watch her go. When she hit the street she removed the uniform heels and broke into a run.

Lunch was over. He had a lot to think about. Not the least of which was whether or not to tell her of what he had seen in his monitor of the system he had hacked.


End file.
